title: A Simple and Computationally Efficient Approach to Multifactor Dimensionality Reduction Analysis of Gene-Gene Interactions for Quantitative Traits.
abstract: We present an extension of the two-class multifactor dimensionality reduction (MDR) algorithm that enables detection and characterization of epistatic SNP-SNP interactions in the context of a quantitative trait. The proposed Quantitative MDR (QMDR) method handles continuous data by modifying MDR's constructive induction algorithm to use a T-test. QMDR replaces the balanced accuracy metric with a T-test statistic as the score to determine the best interaction model. We used a simulation to identify the empirical distribution of QMDR's testing score. We then applied QMDR to genetic data from the ongoing prospective Prevention of Renal and Vascular End-Stage Disease (PREVEND) study.
authors.affiliation: Institute for Quantitative Biomedical Sciences, Geisel School of Medicine, Lebanon, New Hampshire, United States of America ; Section of Biostatistics and Epidemiology, Departments of Community and Family Medicine, Geisel School of Medicine, Lebanon, New Hampshire, United States of America.
authors.forename: Jiang
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Gui
authors.forename: Jason H
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Moore
authors.forename: Scott M
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Williams
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Andrews
authors.forename: Hans L
authors.initials: HL
authors.lastname: Hillege
authors.forename: Pim
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: van der Harst
authors.forename: Gerjan
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Navis
authors.forename: Wiek H
authors.initials: WH
authors.lastname: Van Gilst
authors.forename: Folkert W
authors.initials: FW
authors.lastname: Asselbergs
authors.forename: Diane
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Gilbert-Diamond
mesh_terms: D000465:Algorithms; D004843:Epistasis, Genetic; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007676:Kidney Failure, Chronic / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D008297:Male; D008957:Models, Genetic; D019655:Quantitative Trait, Heritable